Cairo: Egypt's prosecution has called for the maximum sentence for al-Jazeera journalists – including Australian Peter Greste – who are on trial for colluding with the Muslim Brotherhood to produce false news to defame Egypt.

Mr Greste faces a maximum of seven years in prison, while his colleagues Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed face 15 years detention.

Caught up in a 10-month long security crackdown against the now banned Muslim Brotherhood, the journalists say they are the victims of Egypt's sustained vendetta against Qatar, a key supporter of the Brotherhood and the owner of the international Jazeera news network.

In his summation, prosecutor Mohamed Barakat described the relationship between al-Jazeera and the Brotherhood as an "alliance with the devil".

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"Freedom of expression does not mean freedom to lie and spread false information or to promote self-interest," he said. "We request that the court, without compassion or mercy, apply the maximum penalty for the abominable crimes they have committed … any show of mercy will lead to the drowning of an entire society in darkness."

He accused Mr Greste of producing reports on protesters clashing with police in order to bring down the Egyptian state and said Jazeera's coverage of mass rapes and sexual harassment in Tahrir Square was deliberately done to make Egypt look bad.

The fact that the journalists were working out of the luxury Marriott Hotel instead of Jazeera's Cairo offices – a move forced on them when police raided their workplace – indicated they had something to hide, Mr Barakat said.

"You would not be worried about your safety unless you were doing something wrong," he reasoned.

But two defence attorneys for the journalists hit back at the prosecution's claims, challenging the very basis of the case and condemning – again – his failure to present a single piece of evidence to prove the charges.

"Nobody could pinpoint a single video that was a threat to national security," said defence attorney Khaled Abu Bakr, who was harshly critical of the "expert" prosecution witnesses who admitted they could not comment on whether the videos had any impact at all on Egypt's security.

Egypt could not charge Jazeera with any crimes, so they targeted its employees instead, Mr Abu Bakr said, and chose to characterise the most basic journalistic principles as support for terrorism.

"If a journalist covers a protest calling for the downfall of a government, it doesn't mean they agree with it," he said, nor does filming someone shouting "down with the president" indicate you concur.

"That is the nature of the profession – to bear witness to what is happening."

When the trial is over, Mr Abu Bakr told the court, it will be clear who – the journalists or the prosecution – had done more harm to Egypt's reputation.

During a break in the trial, Mr Greste spoke to journalists from the defendant's cage, saying the case appeared to be "a vendetta against al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr" – the Egyptian arm of the network banned in Egypt.

Al-Jazeera English was authorised to operate in Egypt and yet it appeared the prosecution had not ever tried to make the distinction between the two separate entities, Mr Greste said.

"Where are the facts we got wrong, where is the footage we manipulated? They speak only in generalisations," said Mr Greste, facing his 159th day in prison since his arrest on December 29.

Greste's co-defendant Mr Fahmy shouted from the cage: "If we're in jail because we called [the July 3 military overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi] a coup, why isn't CNN, BBC in the cage? Why isn't every journalist in the cage?

"This is a vendetta against al-Jazeera ... we are hostages in a battle between Qatar and Egypt."

In Brisbane, Greste's parents said on Friday that although they knew their son was innocent they were still prepared for the worst.

"The best case scenario would be that he would be let free and he was acquitted," his mother Lois Greste said. "We've had curveballs come at us all the time over the past six months and I think that we've got to be prepared for a possible committal, a sentence."

Amnesty International's trial observer Mohamed Lotfy said the videos the prosecution alleged had threatened national security showed actual events that had happened in Egypt over the past year.

"These are exaggerated and dangerous charges against the journalists when all they did was report the information as they saw it."

Nine of the 20 defendants are in detention, while others are being tried in absentia, including three foreign reporters who are abroad.

Since Dr Mursi's downfall, more than 1400 people have been killed in a police crackdown, mostly his supporters, while more than 16,000 have been jailed, human rights groups say.